You’ve heard that dedicated web hosting was how to tell you’ve arrived, so to speak, but you’re not really sure if it’s time to make the leap into that kind of arrangement. To be sure, a dedicated hosting plan can give you many advantages you aren’t experiencing now, but you need to carefully consider whether or not it’s worth it on several levels.

Let’s examine 5 of the most compelling reasons why you might need to rent a dedicated server.

1. You Have Many Websites! — If you’re in the business of running a mini-site empire, or a lot of feeder sites, then having all of your sites in one location, where you can control everything is a huge advantage! Very often you can also employ different IP addresses, so that you have a minimal footprint. This also obviates the need to install any custom scripts you may be using across other server platforms.

2. Custom Software Configurations — When you are operating on a shared hosting platform, you have very little latitude regarding the types of scripts you can have running on their servers. They need to maintain a certain level of security and stability on the servers for all of their clients, not just you, so they are loath to take any chances that your spiffy new script won’t open holes they won’t be able to fix easily.

3. You Need More Capacity! — This one is one of the clearest reasons. With a dedicated server you are limited only by the size of the server, and not by other people who may happen to be sharing it with you. This eliminates a lot of the issues associated with shared hosting, such as limited bandwidth, space and speed. You have the ability to use your server’s capacity to your heart’s content.

4. Security — If the thought of all your website’s or databases data sitting on a server that you share with God knows who, then you may well want to opt for a dedicated server plan. When you are renting the server, you are in control: configured to your satisfaction, with all the security layers in place that you want.

5. You Need Better Performance — When it’s all said and done the bottom line is you need a certain level of performance, and the only real way to ensure that is to be in charge of it. Dedicated hosting offers superb speed and accessibility, and you will likely never again have to worry about a slow response time.

While there are several other issues to consider, such as price, your own technical skills (you need to be software savvy as you are the tech support!) and whether or not to choose a managed server, unmanaged, or a colocated server. Whichever way you choose, dedicated hosting offers a freedom and choice far superior to shared hosting, if you can handle the technical end.